Contractor leaving supplies on site

hi all, new to the forum.

the contractor I hired to put on a new roof 2 months ago left a pallet of shingles in my front yard. They have been sitting there, being rained on and available to thieves. I have called and left messages with the builder several times asking him to remove the shingles from my property. He has not acted on my requests and I am tired of looking at them.

at some point do these become "mine"? it's unfair that he uses my front lawn as his personal storage facility.

Contractor leaving supplies on site

I guess I'm asking more of a legal question.. yes I could just put a free sign on them and they'd be gone, but would that not open me to suit or worse? How long does it take for someone to abandon property before it's *legally* up for grabs?

Contractor leaving supplies on site

Its on your property..its yours unless otherwise stated in the contract, but realistically, most contractors calculate waste into their estimate so I doubt they want it back. Personally, I leave any useful materials such as excess paint, shingles, flooring for future repairs if needed. IMO, keep the shingles.

Contractor leaving supplies on site

I'm not a lawyer. But the job has been done for 2 months. He's been paid for as long too. And you have exhibited more than due diligence in trying to get him to come remove the stuff (You can document this?)

When I had a certain contractor do paver driveways for me, he would always leave the remainder of a pallet onsite. I made one call, one time, then made a deal with the gutter installer to remove them free. He wanted to amass enough to do a random color drive at his house... I needed them out of there.

Turns out the Paver Contracter began telling him where he was doing other driveways and was leaving materials behind. Worked out for all of us.

You see, the Paver guy worked on "Drop Shipments", and had no way to haul or store the excess. So he usually just walked away from it, and either the homeowners used them, or they eventually disappeared.

I think you may be experiencing the same situation. So if you have proof you've tried to get him to remove it, I'd say .... Craig'slist.

__________________
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Willie T

Contractor leaving supplies on site

This is simple to fix. Put an inviting FREE ad on Craigs List, and they should be gone in a day or two.

Dave's gonna hate me for not purging this one too, but I can't resist..

A man bought a new beer fridge for his garage and subsequently put the old one out at the end of the driveway. He put a sign out saying,"Free fridge..works great" A week later the fridge was still there and the neighbours were complaining. He took the old sign down and place a new one stating, "Working Fridge $200.00" Next night, it was stolen!

Contractor leaving supplies on site

Quote:

Originally Posted by mel_kissmygrits

I guess I'm asking more of a legal question.. yes I could just put a free sign on them and they'd be gone, but would that not open me to suit or worse? How long does it take for someone to abandon property before it's *legally* up for grabs?

amount of time and actions required to do anything vary from state to state.

What I would do is send a certified letter telling him he has 1 week from the receipt of the letter to remove the shingles or you will have them removed and sue him, if necessary, for the costs to remove and dispose of the shingles.

If the letter shows it was received and you do not receive a response within that week, get rid of them however you want. If you do get money for them, in some states that would be owed to the owner of the material if he claims it.

Contractor leaving supplies on site

Contractor leaving supplies on site

As was previously posted, you've probably already paid for them. It would have been more professional of them to have asked you what you wanted done with them before they left the site. Possibly, it was an oversite. In the contractor game as far as I've been able to tell, returns mean time lost on current joband time is money. Consequently, they are inclined to avoid returns except to remedy a problem.